Persuasion by Jane Austen: Book Review

5 Stars. My favorite Austen! Captain Wentworth! *sigh* Or is it *swoon*? This was a nice blend of Austen’s pointed social commentary and a (bitter)sweet romance. Anne’s family is just awful. They are silly, vain and entirely too class-conscious. They insist on their “inferiors” showing them the proper amount of deference and […]

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Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith: Book Review

I’m an Appalachian mountain girl. I felt like I knew Ivy from the first sentence. She truly seemed to come to life on the pages. I came along a few generations after her time, but I felt like she could be one of my grandmothers. She talked the way I probably still talk 🙂 Education […]

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Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane: Book Review

Shutter Island is off the coast of Massachusetts, housing an asylum for the criminally insane. As a nasty summer storm brews up, U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule cross over to the island to search for an escaped inmate. But Teddy knows that things are not as they seem on Shutter Island. Ho-lee crap. […]

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World Without End by Ken Follett: Book Review

Set a couple of hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End picks up the story of the town of Kingsbridge. I don’t want to say too much about the twists and turns the plot follows, so I’ll just say that the book is the story of a generation of townspeople and […]

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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: Book Review

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Book Cover

I have my review of World Without End by Ken Follett written and ready to post. I refer so much to The Pillars of the Earth that I should probably post that review first. Here it is. To be very simplistic, The Pillars of the Earth is about building a cathedral in the twelfth century […]

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Soulless by Gail Carriger: Book Review

I have waited entirely too long to write this review and gotten too deeply involved in Ken Follett’s World Without End, so this review is going to suck a little. Which is a pity because I had thought of all kinds of witty things I was going to write and now I’ve lost them. Miss […]

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Venom by Joan Brady: Book Review

This book is so complicated, I don’t even know where to start with a synopsis. David Marion is an ex-con who receives advance notice of a hit on his life. He escapes and learns that a mega-corporation, UCAI, was behind it. At the same time, Dr. Helen Freyl, who has a complicated past with David, […]

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Truly, Madly by Heather Webber: Book Review

Lucy Valentine has lost the family ability to match people based on their auras, and can now only find lost objects. After some negative publicity, Lucy finds herself in charge of the family matchmaking business for a few weeks. Not realizing what she’s getting herself into, she offers to try to find a new client’s […]

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Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson: Book Review

Fisherman and WWII veteran Carl Meine is found dead and tangled up in his fishing net one morning. At first glance it appears to be an accident, but the sheriff looks a little closer and starts to wonder. He soon arrests another fisherman, Kabuo Miyamoto, for murder. Against the backdrop of the murder trial, Guterson […]

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Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani: Book Review

Valentine Roncalli is turning 34 years old, she lives and works with her grandmother, and she’s single. She’s pretty happy though, until the day her grandmother tells her that the family’s custom shoe shop is in financial trouble. Now she finds herself trying to find a way to save the business she loves as she […]

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The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson: Book Review

The narrator of The Gargoyle (I’m pretty sure we never learn his name) begins his story with a horrific car crash that leaves him burned beyond recognition. He hasn’t lived the best life: he’s selfish, addicted to drugs, and a porn star. His beautiful, sexy “friends” take one look at him after the accident and […]

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